WNEM-TV
This article is not to be confused with the real life WNEM-TV, a real-life CBS affiliate also serving Flint - Saginaw - Bay City - Midland, Michigan. WNEM-TV is the owned-and-operated station of YesNet, with a subchannel affiliated with New Line Network, for the Flint/Tri-Cities market in Michigan. It is licensed to Bay City, and broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 22 (PSIP virtual channel 5). Owned by Berfield/Willis Broadcast Corporation, the station has studios on North Franklin Street in downtown Saginaw, as well as a second newsroom in downtown Flint. Its 1,000-kilowatt, 275.3-metre-high (903 ft) transmitter is located on Becker Road in Robin Glen-Indiantown, in Buena Vista Township, east of Saginaw. WNEM-TV focuses its local news stories on Saginaw, Bay City, and Midland, with a secondary focus on Flint. History WNEM-TV was founded by the NorthEastern Michigan Corporation, hence the call letters, on March 1, 1974, instantly becoming an affiliate of the then-fledgling New Line Network. The station, however, was sold to the Meredith Corporation before it's first sign-on. Originally, its main studios were located next to the transmitter site in Indiantown. The original Viacom bought the station in 1979. Viacom kept the Meredith-designed classic stylized "5" logo introduced when the station was founded in 1974 and would then bring several innovations to WNEM-TV during the 1980s. In the mid-1980s, the station moved its primary studios to their current location in downtown Saginaw. The Becker Road studios would later be used for the Buena Vista campus of Delta College, though the complex still houses WNEM-TV's transmitter. WNEM-TV would become the first station in Michigan outside of Detroit to provide closed captioning for all of its local newscasts, in 1988. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, WNEM-TV aired so much syndicated cartoons (including the 80's revival of The Jetsons) alongside cartoons already supplied by New Line as part of the New Line Toons block that the station promoted itself at one point as "Mid-Michigan's Kids Superstation!". Viacom purchased Paramount Pictures in 1994, and merged its station group (including WNEM-TV) into the Paramount Stations Group. However, in 1995, the company decided to divest itself of all stations not affiliated with either of the two networks it owned at the time; the Paramount Network and the fledgling United Paramount Network. In March 1997, Paramount sold WNEM-TV to Horizons Communications. On October 3, 2005, WNEM ceased identifying by its call letters, adopting the current Studio 5 brand, with its newscasts rebranding from WNEM News to Studio 5 News. WNEM-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 22, using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 5. However, channel 5 analog did remain on-the-air for a short period afterward with a nightlight slide with phone numbers and information about the switch. As of April 1, 2011, Comcast Cablevision of Holly, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, has WNEM-TV replaced with WNLND as their New Line affiliate. In August, WNEM-TV began airing its syndicated programming in high definition. While Fenton and Holly are much closer to Flint than Detroit (15 miles compared to 45), both cities are in the far northern portions of Oakland County, the entirety of which is part of the Detroit television market. For the fall 2012 season, the station pick up Dish Nation, a half-hour syndicated entertainment news program. On April 27, 2015, added subchannel with an affiliation with Cozi TV. Also in spring 2015, WNEM added second subchannel affiliated with Cartoon Network's Cartoon Theatre. On February 24, 2017, Horizons sold WNEM-TV to Righi Television Stations, resulting in the station becoming an owned-and-operated station of RBC, displacing New Line to it's second subchannel, which in turn resulted in a subchannel realignment which saw the existing Cozi and Cartoon Theatre subchannels bumped up and two new subchannels seen on other RBC O&Os added as well. On March 19, 2017, Righi Television Stations sold WNEM to Liberty City, Liberty based Berfield/Willis Broadcast Corporation, thus ending it's status as an O&O station of RBC after nearly a month. Coinciding with this, the RBC Kids Network and RBC 24/7 News subchannels stopped showing their respective networks and are now airing color bars in the interim. On May 23, 2017, following the shutdown of RBC earlier in the month, WNEM dropped the RBC affiliation and switched to Berfield/Willis' owned multicast network, YesNet. Ownership History *NorthEastern Michigan Corporation (1974) *Meredith Corporation (1974-1979) *Viacom (1979-1997; individually 1979-1994, through Paramount Stations Group 1994-1997) *Horizons Communications (1997-2017) *Righi Television Stations (2017) *Berfield/Willis Broadcast Corporation (2017-present) Digital channels The station's digital signal is multiplexed: Gallery Logo history 1979WNEMLogo.png|1979-December 31, 1989 1990WNEMLogo.png|January 1, 1990-1994 1994WNEMLogo.png|1994-97 1997WNEMLogo.png|1997-2002 2002WNEMLogo.png|2002-05 2005WNEMLogo.png|2005-17, currently used on WNEM-DT2. WNEM 5.png|Logo used during RBC affiliation. Other pictures WNEM Bumper November 1991.jpg|WNEM-TV bumper for The Red Green Show, captured in November 1991. 1994WNEMActionNewsIntro.jpg|1994-97 WNEM Action News at Six intro, recorded on March 5, 1996. WNEMTestPattern.jpg|Test pattern, captured in January 1997. NLN Bug 2002.jpg|Screencap from December 31, 2002 with New Line's screen bug of the period. News operation As of January 2017, WNEM-TV presently broadcasts 15½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 2½ hours on weekdays, 1½ hours on Saturdays and Sundays). Prior to 1998, WNEM's newscast was called WNEM Action News. In the past, the station's newscasts were branded as NewsLine and Mid-Michigan Report. Following the main signal's affiliation with RBC, the 10 PM newscast was moved to the second subchannel and renamed Studio 5.2 News at 10. After the main signal became a YesNet station, the newscast moved back to the main signal and reverted back to the former Studio 5 News at 10 name. In addition to its main facilities, the station operates a Genesee County Bureau at the Wade Trim Building on Saginaw Street in Downtown Flint. This had originally been located in Flint Township on Torrey Road just north of Bristol Road (M-121 at the time) and Flint Bishop International Airport and west of what was then the I-75/US 10/US 23 freeway (later just I-75/US 23) until Viacom moved it to a new facility in Mundy Township's Gateway Center in 1990, where it remained until October 2008. WNEM-TV operates their own weather radar, known as "Studio 5 Ready First Pinpoint Doppler Radar", on the eastern side of MBS International Airport which is also streamed live on its website. In August 2009, the station began carrying obituaries following certain newscasts. This service began after local major newspapers in the region including The Bay City Times, The Saginaw News, and The Flint Journal reduced publication to three times a week in June 2009. At first a free service when it was launched, WNEM-TV began charging $100 per obituary in September 2009. As of October 19, 2009, over 700 obituaries appeared on the channel and its website, obitmichigan.com. WNEM was known for many years for the red jackets worn by news anchors on their newscasts, a practice that dated back to the very first newscast in 1974 and continued until 1989. On August 18, 2012, the Saturday edition of Studio 5 News at 6 was expanded to one hour. On April 20, 2014, the Sunday edition of Studio 5 News at 6 was also expanded to an hour. Category:Flint Category:Saginaw Category:Bay City Category:Michigan Category:Channel 5 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1974 Category:Former New Line Network affiliates Category:Berfield/Willis Broadcast Corporation Category:Former RBC Affiliates Category:Former RBC affiliates Category:YesNet O&O station Category:YesNet affiliated stations Category:YesNet affiliates